After a long work day in the General Assembly and several drinks late at night, Norment's driving was so impaired that he ran off the road twice, each time jerking the car back onto the road, before a state trooper pulled him over. Norment said his blood alcohol content tested at 0.10 percent, above Virginia's legal limit of 0.08 percent. In addition, that kind of driving indicates it wasn't a close call for the trooper.

So on Tuesday, Norment, the Republican floor leader in the Senate, was distracted from Assembly business as he answered reporters' questions about his drunken driving charge. To his credit, he accepted personal responsibility and didn't make excuses. Then on Wednesday, it had to be a further distraction to know his lawyer was appearing on his behalf in a nearby courthouse.

The trooper may have saved Norment's life, or the life of some unsuspecting driver, but Norment's political career is still vulnerable.

Much will be made of Norment's arrest because he won his Senate seat with a campaign that belittled then-incumbent Bill Fears, who was known to make jokes on the Senate floor about drunken driving. Norment followed up his victory with a long list of bills that tightened the state's laws on drunken driving. If anyone knows the laws, it should be Norment. He wrote them.

So there is an element of personal disappointment for Norment's supporters. But there is a political question that goes beyond Norment. Now in his ninth year in the Senate, Norment has become one of its most powerful members. And this year, more than any other, he had taken the lead on some controversial, high-profile issues that put him at odds with Gov. Gilmore.

Norment had been especially vocal about the fiscal irresponsibility of continuing Gilmore's pet project, phasing in the state's reimbursement to localities for the car tax, when state revenues are stagnant and not meeting growth requirements set in the law to move to the next phase of the tax repeal.

He had been equally outspoken about Gilmore's plan to close Eastern State Hospital. Would that plan be approved, he was asked. "Over my dead body," Norment had said.

But can Norment continue to claim such a commanding position? Or will he be forced to relinquish that leadership role to others? And what will it mean to and for the people he represents in James City, Williamsburg, portions of Gloucester, York and Newport News, and all of the Eastern Shore?

Norment put a lot on the line to have those couple of drinks. And he risked it for a lot of people who deserved better.

"I am very regretful about what has happened and intend to accept the responsibilities for it. ... I'm fully prepared to be accountable for my actions, and whatever the court deems appropriate, I intend to accept that responsibility."

When Sen. Tommy Norment got behind the wheel of his car early Tuesday morning, the alcohol he had drunk with friends impaired his judgment so much that he thought it wouldn't impair his driving. That's what alcohol does.

And while Norment will suffer the barbs of publicity because of his position in state politics, his actions are more common than most of us want to admit.

A long day? A tough day at work? Dinner and drinks with friends? What social drinker among us hasn't admitted, with clear-headed thinking the next morning, that he got behind the wheel when he shouldn't have?

With the legal limit at 0.08 percent blood alcohol content in Virginia, a 170-pound man would be legally drunk after drinking about four 12- ounce beers in an hour. The standard was lowered from 0.10 to 0.08 percent in 1994 in a bill Norment sponsored.

But knowing the legal limit or even the example of four beers per hour isn't enough. How many of us weigh 170 pounds? Factor in other things, such as sleep deprivation, stress, medication or many other conditions of daily life, and an individual's tolerance can be much lower.

By the time many of us decide whether to drive, we have probably forgotten just how much we have had to drink. Four beers or five? Two drinks or three? Why quibble? We go by how we feel. And alcohol generally makes us feel good - and deceptively capable.

None of this is intended to excuse what Norment did. Exactly the opposite.

Any person who considers driving after drinking needs to use Norment as a role model of what they should not do. If you misjudge your condition, there's not as much margin for error as you think.